Thursday Tidbits

The one thing physical distancing has done is enable me to get projects finished. So today I will post a few pictures of the finished projects.

Two of the 15 masks I made.

Two  dresses which I have shown you all before.

A jumper with a machine embroidered bear.

The dressier tank top made out of a crinkled silk fabric.

A sleeveless knit tunic shirt.

I have continued working on my temperature blanket and the second prayer shawl. My counted cross stitch is coming along as well. I will share a photo of those next week.

Still have one more cut out sewing project to go and then I will start some new projects for the summer.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thrifty Tuesday

How was I thrifty over the last week? 

Really each week I seem to get a bit more into a more thrifty mindset. With the constant increase or limitations on the purchase of meat, I am finding new and interesting ways to take a small amount of meat and fashion a meal that my carnivore of a husband enjoys.

Extra meat is packed away to be used in another meal or three when I make a roast or a chicken.

Today I made a tank top from fabric I bought for at a church rummage sale. Actually they were going to give me all the fabric I picked up for free, but I thought a donation would only be right. So for around a dollar and a bit of work I now am the proud owner of a rather dressy tank top. The scraps were collected and may end up being the edging of another top or perhaps a skirt.

I darned a pair of my socks today, and a pair that was too worn I cut into ties to use in the garden.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Menu Monday

It is almost the end of April. Time, even in this uncertain period seems to whiz by most days. I had to do up my menus for next month in order to post a full weeks worth today.

Monday

Chili and toast.

Tuesday

Soup and Sandwiches. I will pull a container of beef soup from the chest freezer.

Wednesday

Leftover chili. This time over pasta.

Thursday

A package of Lazy Cabbage Rolls from the chest freezer.

Friday 

Cod fillets, salad, and homemade fries.

Saturday

Ribs, cooked on the BBQ hopefully, tinfoil potatoes and carrots.

Sunday

Roast chicken, roasted potatoes and mixed veggies. We will probably finish off the salad as well.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

I found this picture in Google images, it is from a Facebook account, but I can't find who to credit with the picture. 

It has been a very busy weekend. I did manage to clean up Kris's apartment and get him out of it for an hour or so. I have never seen him move so quickly on those crutches once he saw his car. As he settled into the passenger seat, Kris looked at me and said "I haven't sat in my car since February 12th, this is absolutely fantastic." The windows were rolled down, the music turned up and we were off. Filled the tank with gas, drove through the car wash, and stopped to pick up an adult beverage for him. I know he enjoyed the short trip outside.

Then it was home today, after telling him that his Dad and I will be back up on May 6th. He has an appointment with his specialist that day. Since Harvey is coming up as well (I think he missed me while I was gone) he can take Kris to this appointment and I will clean the apartment while they are gone. We will probably only stay one night, but hopefully Kris will finally be able to put a bit of weight on his leg and will become a bit more mobile. Keeping our fingers crossed for that.

While I am happy that things will be loosening up a bit I am still slightly worried about the consequences of perhaps opening things up too quickly. There is a small greenhouse south of Regina on highway 6 that I noticed being open on my way to the city. There did not seem to be many people taking advantage of this, so I though that perhaps on the way home I would pop in and pick up a few bedding plants. Well, as I slowed down to make the turn I noticed wall to wall vehicles. I doubt very much social distancing was happening. I carried on with my journey to the southeast corner of my province. I will figure out something to make the yard look pretty this year.

Kurt has been busy setting up his raised garden beds. From the way he speaks I even wonder if we will get a chance to see him this summer. This is hurting my heart even though I know it is to help 

prevent the spread of the virus. Still family is important to most of the people I know and to not be able to actually be within touching distance or in his case visual distance is tough.

I do not know when we will be able to attend Mass again. I have been watching it live streamed from one of the churches in Regina. I really miss my community, which considering the questions and feelings I have shared previously surprises me. I think through this I have discovered that my faith is not tied to the priest but to the community. Makes me feel so much better.

There are three sewing projects left to complete this month and I am keeping my fingers crossed that at least two will be done and the third one began. Keeping busy is helping me to keep sane, even us introverts need human contact once in awhile.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Frugal Friday

I am up in Regina at Kris's and I have managed to get a few things completed. Tomorrow I will be finishing off what needs to be done, and I plan on getting Kris out of the apartment for a bit of an outing.

Now on to the frugal happenings this week.

1.  I packaged up the leftover roast pork to use in meals later.

2.  Used one package of the leftover pork to make a stir fry one night.

3.  Harvey got a bit carried away making hamburgers for supper and made enough for two meals.

4.  Baked bread twice this week.

5. Kept the furnace off most days and heated the house with the solar energy coming through the front windows.

My tablet looses power quickly so I will try and catch up with all of you as power permits.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Tour Part Two

I thought I would share a few more pictures with all of you of my city.

First off some of the Historical homes that are still standing.

There are many more, and if I can find the pictures I will post them another time.

Woodlawn Regional Park is a place we spent many a happy week camping in the past. This little campground is just south of the city.

It is also the home of the Souris Valley Theater. A place Harvey and I visit twice a summer for the two live theater events.

This building started it's life as the Jewish Synagogue here. Then when the Jewish community left the city they sold it to the city and it became our Public Library. Later when the new library was built a dance studio bought it and still owns it as of today.

This is the Leisure Complex, the home of our indoor pool, gym, two rinks (one of which is larger and used for other events as well) the weight room, a multipurpose room, and our library. 

Our main street (also known as 4th Street) looking west.

When I get back from Kris's I will hopefully be able to continue the tour.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

A Tour

Since each day seems to flow into the next with nothing really new or exciting happening around the old homestead I thought I might use a couple of posts to show you my city.

I live in a small prairie city renown for coal, oil, and farming. Estevan is in the southeast corner of the province of Saskatchewan. Only 9 miles from the Canadian/United States border.

This was our old sign as you came into the city.

Here is our new one.

We are known as the Energy city because of the oil wells and coal mines that surround us. We are also known as the Sunshine Capital of Canada as we have more hours of sunshine here than any other city in Canada. Or at least we did have more.

Coal is mined by open pit here with huge drag lines. 

Loaded into these huge trucks and taken to one of our two power plants.

The oldest power plant in the city is just south west of us on Long Creek and is known as Boundary Dam.

The newer one is to the east of the city and is the Shand Power Station. It also has a green house attached to it where people can purchase trees suitable for prairie planting.

These two power plants supply power to southern Saskatchewan, some parts of Western Manitoba, and even some of North Dakota, and South Dakota. Both plants are due to be phased out in the coming years.

Many oil companies have offices here in the city, though with the price of oil right now I don't know how long they can survive. Harvey worked in the "patch" for 35 years and we have seen many ups and downs. Nothing this long or bad though.

Most of the farmers haul their grain to large terminals like this one on the west edge of the city. The smaller elevators in the various small towns around us have been torn down over the past ten or so years. Farmers no longer use small grain trucks either. Usually they are large semi trailers hauling grain. Harvey calls them v trains...whatever that means.

This photo shows our courthouse in the forefront and part of the oldest section of the city, which is where I live.

I will leave off here before I make you all fall asleep from boredom. Promise to carry on tomorrow with more of the tour.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thrifty Tuesday

It has been a pretty thrifty week.

I have baked bread (yea for my bread machine).

Mended one of Harvey's shirts.

Unpacked all the old sheets that Kris gave me to use as backing for quilts (kind of tricked him into cleaning out the hall closet, but I did get enough backing to probably make 7 or 8 quilts).

Got my umbrella clothesline set up. Now that the weather is improving I am going to wash it down and hopefully next week start hanging all the clothes outside.

Started my plants and will save a great deal of cash if they all come up.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Menu Monday

Blogger was acting strangely last night and I could not leave a post. It was working perfectly when I visited and posted comments, then a few hours later nothing. I am so glad to wake up and see it is working properly once again.

I will be heading up to do my cleaning and grocery run on Friday for Kris. Leaving Harvey to fend for himself. I hope to have leftovers in the fridge for him to forage.

Monday

Hamburgers, coleslaw and homemade fries.

Tuesday

The roast pork that I did not make on Sunday. Served with roast potatoes, and roasted carrots.

Wednesday

Soup and sand.

Thursday

Stir fry with the leftover pork roast.

Friday

Harvey gets to forage.

Saturday

Harvey forages once again

Sunday

Probably the chili I was going to make on Saturday. Should be home in plenty of time to make this as long as the beef is thawed.

Everybody have a wonderful day. God bless.

Saturday Roundup

I have been able to finish up a few projects that have been waiting to be finished for awhile. Not only those sewing projects, but I managed to finish off 6 new dishcloths,

which will be put away until needed.

Got my plants started,

which I see can be watered once again on one side.

I finished two more masks, sorry no picture of them as I popped them into the mail to get them to Kurt's as soon as possible.

Started a new prayer shawl and pulled this

cross stitch kit out to do in the afternoons. 

Looks as if I have a couple of projects to work on over the next week or so along with the last four sewing projects.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thursday Tidbits

It has been a quiet day here on the old homestead. I woke up to sunny skies and cold temperatures, but as the day progressed the wind got stronger and the snow began to fly. I am beginning to wonder if winter will ever let go of her icy grip.

I braved the stores today as well as the post office and bank. So glad that I don't have to do so very often. I was being a good follower of the rules by social distancing and following the arrows on the floor. Not so other people. I think that instead of being kind many people are becoming rude and aggressive. One lady almost bowled me over in the grocery store. Just pushed me and my cart out of the way so she could get by me. I did keep my cool, might have thought some nasty thoughts, but kept them to myself.

I did the household chores, and then spent the rest of the day doing very little. I actually feel like I was quite lazy. Tomorrow I need to buckle down and get things completed, like the jumper I have cut out.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Wednesday Happenings

On our way home from visiting Kris we got to see two rather large flocks of geese resting in the fields before carrying on with their flights. This is a picture of the smaller of the two flocks. The biggest one was on the wrong side of the highway and I couldn't get a decent picture.

This is only about half the flock.

I have also been spending much of my free time sewing.

Some more masks. These are going to be mailed to Kurt tomorrow.

Another skirt because I love to wear long skirts in the spring and summer. It does make walking a bit more difficult but I seem to manage okay.

And two dresses. 

This leaves me 4 other cut out projects to get done this month. I am slowly but surely getting caught up. I will be making some summer clothing next. Good thing I have an extensive stash of fabric to choose from. But boy or boy when the fabric stores open again I am going to really stock up, especially if it is true about going through waves of Covid-19 until a vaccine is made.

Still knitting dishcloths and will have a picture of those to show you all very soon.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Menu Monday

Sorry for not being around this past week end. We were up at Kris's. Got all the garbage out and the cleaning done as well. I more than likely won't be going up again for around 10 days or when he can get an appointment for more x-rays and a visit with his doctor.

Monday

Leftover ham and a salad. Pretty much all our tummies can handle after our large meal last night.

Tuesday

A container of stew from the freezer downstairs. This time served with dumplings.

Wednesday

Clean out the fridge night. Should be stew and even ham and salad leftover.

Thursday

Hot dogs, homemade fries, and coleslaw.

Friday

Soup and salmon salad sandwiches.

Saturday

Pork chops, rice, green beans and the leftover coleslaw.

Sunday

Pork roast, roasted potatoes, roasted carrots and a tossed salad.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Thursday Tidbits

So our provincial and federal governments made their usual daily statements on the Covid-19 pandemic.

Things do not look good, even though we are keeping things under control and most provinces are more or less keeping a handle on things.

The Prime Minister hinted that we could in fact be practicing social distancing until after the summer. That is a very long time. He also stated that thing would probably not be back to a new normal until a vaccine is formulated. Then it is the problem of making sure everyone gets the vaccine. We could be in for a very long haul.

What can we do? Just keep on keeping on. Staying safe, practicing what we have been told to do and doing the best we can.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Keeping Busy

I thought I just might as well post some pictures of the projects and other things I have managed to get done over the past week.

Bone broth simmering on the stove. Sure made the house smell wonderful.

The weather was very unpredictable. This is what it was like the day I made my bone broth. The next day rolled around, the sun shone and the small amount of snow we received disappeared.

This is the prayer shawl I have been working on. I finished it off tonight. This night Harvey and I decided to try some of his homemade beer.... A bit strong for my taste.

Made unbaked cookies, which I am sorry to say I ate way too many of.

Got some veggie seeds to get started. Of course I did not have any peat pots left so had to get those as well. There are a few flower seed packets as well that will need starting. Plan on doing that before we leave for Kris's on Saturday. 

This years temperature blanket is being worked on a row at a time.

Then the snow came once again. This time great big flakes floating gently to the ground. 

A skirt has been sewn, and I have a dress almost finished which I will share in another post next week.

I was asked about Lazy Cabbage rolls. I usually put shredded cabbage on the bottom of a casserole or tinfoil container. Then put the usual cabbage roll (stuffed cabbage) mixture in a layer on top of that. Add another layer of shredded cabbage over the seasoned meat and rice mixture. Lastly I pour tomato juice or watered down tomato soup over top. 

I was also asked about why I couldn't hang clothes outside. I could, but considering how cold it is here they would be freeze dried and might cause a few more problems as to how to dry the freeze dried clothing. I just don't know how that works, though Harvey says his Mom did this all the time.

We also has some bad news yesterday. My double first cousin's wife (we call ourselves double because my mom's sister married my dad's brother) passed away. I don't think it was from Covid-19, but very little is being said about the why or how. The funeral will not take place until things open up again and their sons can get to Canada from New Zealand and Vietnam. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.